Do you have housekeeping money?

When my DH’s father died his mother didn’t have a single thing in her name. No access to a bank account either . My husband became the sole heir (for a few days) until he signed it all over to his poor mum. Long story involving greed, greed and more greed.

Thank you janeainsworth. This has really got beyond ridiculous now. Reporting me? What on earth for? ??????

Eloethan I think a set amount worked when we were first married because we were saving for the deposit for a house into a joint building society account, even though they only considered DH'S salary for the amount of the loan.

Never had it. We are the same as Mr & Mrs Kitty

No-one has personally attacked you, GG.
Neither I, nor Bathsheba, nor the others who have simply pointed out that they had their own bank accounts in the 60’s, after you asserted that women couldn’t have their own bank accounts till 1975.

When we married (1964), I was earning more than my hubbie. However, only his salary was accepted by bldg societies for mortgage purposes. Thank Goodness, the old LCC had started a scheme of giving 100% mortgages based, totally, on the valuation of the property -and this is what enabled us to step onto the housing ladder.
Back then both our salaries were paid into a join account, and monies paid out as necessary.
Sometimes in the 70's, I did set up a bank account in my own name, where I kept a small amount of money -for emergencies!!
I can remember in the late 1960's a divorced female friend of ours (a teacher), having to ask my husband to sign for her to get HP for some furniture - so daft as she earned more, and had more job security, than my hubbie!!! But HP was no permitted without a male guarantor.

If you get "bored" with your "petty pickiness" bathsheba why do it?

Next time you make a personal attack I will simply report you. There really is no need for such comments.

Yes but I have to supplement it. DH has no idea of household items including food increasing in price. Never had a joint account as neither of us could mentally cope with it. DH knows to the penny what he has in account and what he has spent but I am not so meticulous. I know what is there and how much I have but it would be too stressful to immediately note each loaf of bread/bottle of wine! He is so meticulous about everything that when he cooks if the recipe says 15 minutes then it is 15 minutes regardless of if it is actually cooked or not hence why 2 of us could not stomach hard tagliatelle tonight and the baby spat it out after trying to chew it for 10 minutes but he managed to eat it all but considered cooking it for longer next time! There will not be a next time!!!!

Although for most of our working lives, and now that we are retired, my husband brings in far more money than I do, we have always had joint current and savings accounts, even before we were married. On the whole, this works quite well because I don't have extravagant tastes and would not spend a significant amount of money without discussing it with my husband first. In theory this applies to him also although, in practice, whatever the outcome of the "discussion" - he tends to go ahead anyway! To be fair, I am more pessimistic and cautious than he is and the house alterations which we have made, and which were probably well worth doing, I would have been too indecisive to go ahead with, ultimately to the detriment of our home.

The idea of being allocated a set amount of "housekeeping money" does not appeal to me at all. Although it could result in a very generous allowance, it seems to me that it also takes control away from one party, and could result in the person bringing in the most money also allocating themselves a much greater proportion of the income. Personally, I would find that upsetting though I can see some people might feel quite comfortable with that arrangement.

GG I have no idea whether everyone prior to the change of law was ‘happily getting bank accounts’ - how could I? I do know, however that I and many others were.
But I’m now getting rather bored with this petty pickiness, so I’m off to bed

She was a cheeky so-and-so, Callistemon! I don’t recall having any trouble myself, thank goodness. The allotment was a sensible thing to have in place in those pre-internet banking days. My Dh, before I knew him, had been away for 18 months at one point. Imagine men having to send a tenner home from every port they visited!

I remember that this was way before BACS, but we were required to have a bank or building society account because we were paid by cheque which we then paid into our accounts, and we had cheque books.
It was the mid-sixties.
I kept one of my accounts and still have it now.

Another example of the lack of equality in banking and money pensionpat and an interesting one. Could the woman keep her account in her "maiden" name then, if she chose to?

I hear what you say Bathsheba but all I did was to note the fact that the law was passed on that date. Each of you addressed me to say you had bank accounts before that date. That is relevant to you but almost irrelevant to the fact that the law being changed meant a societal change.

My knickers are firmly in place, thank you and there really is no need to make personal attacks. If you believe that prior to the change of law everyone was happily getting bank accounts then say so. Otherwise, your comments, interesting though they may be to you and others who already have bank accounts are not relevant to the changes that came, after the law was passed.

If you see it differently, leave the personal comment out and put your argument forward. It would be interesting to hear it.

To add my two pennorth, I worked in a bank from 1967 and when a woman got married she produced her marriage certificate and we changed the name on the account to her married name and we took a new specimen signature.

GG where on earth in my post does it indicate that I have an opinion one way or another on whether the law brought about societal change? . I was merely commenting, as have several others, that I and many I knew were able to open a bank account in our own names way before any law was in place to allow this. Keep your knickers on!

I remember having to go to the Post Office to 'draw the allotment' and the woman there was extremely rude and treated us as if she was giving us her own money when in fact it was part of our husband's salary, SueDonim.
I remember DH saying it was necessary because some would not make any arrangements for their wives to receive any money at all when they were away.

Fine Bathsheba. I think the law brought about societal change. If you don't, why not just say so?

Your friends (how many I wonder) may have had there own bank account but what about older women and those in cash paid jobs? I really doubt you were anything other than a small proportion of all the women in the country. Your sample is far too small to convince me otherwise.

This is not about you or me but about changes in society.

I suppose what janea said is relevant because you had said in your original post that women couldn't open a bank account in their own name until 1975, Gracesgran, but some of us remembered that we did.

However, when applying for a mortgage later on after I was married, my salary could not be considered.

As Callistemon mentioned, I had a Royal Navy Allotment book when we first married. The Navy insisted upon it, it wasn’t optional. That was my ‘housekeeping’ money in that I bought our food and paid the milk and newspaper bills out of it and I’d had some left over from my £10pw in 1972!

We have always had a joint account, though, so I never had to manage on my allotment. If I needed more money, I’d get it out of the bank. Money is one thing we have never argued about over the years.

My father used to hand over his entire pay packet to my mum and she would give him his pocket money. She was better with money and paid all the bills anyway, so it made sense.

That may be so GracesGran, but I'm fairly sure that many banks pre-empted the law. I, and all my working friends, had our own bank accounts in our own names in the mid-late 60's, without any need to have them countersigned.

I'm not sure what you want me to say janeainsworth. I mentioned the date on which, by law, all banks had to offer women a bank account in their own name. I don't mean to be rude but, interesting though it is to know you had one prior to that date I have no idea why it is relevant to my original comment.

Gracesgran I too had my own bank account from when I started at university in 1967. I don’t remember my father or anyone else having anything to do with it.

Gracesgran I'm sure I had a bank account from about the mid sixties. I was single then. My salary was paid into it, we didn't get pay packets.

My mother was given housekeeping money, by my father, every Friday night and she would separate out money for rent, milk bill, insurance etc, and whatever was left over was to feed us all for the week. There was never enough. On the otherhand, my father smoked and drank, ran a car and spent the majority of his wages on himself. It was so miserable, and caused so many arguments between them, that I knew from a very young age I would never accept that. As soon as I started work in 1970, I opened my own bank account and kept that separate throughout my marriage.